Personalized automated shopping system and method

Abstract

A personalized, automated shopping system and method includes generating a virtual hold tag in a shopping application on a computer that provides one or more items for sale to a consumer operating a client computing device. The shopping application is associated with a retailer of the one or more items. The system and method includes associating at least one of the one or more items with the virtual hold tag in the shopping application, and generating a collage of items associated with the virtual hold tag, the collage of items being a single visual representation of each item associated with the virtual hold tag. The system and method further includes transmitting the collage of items to the consumer via the client computing device, and providing, for the client computing device, an interface configured to allow the consumer to buy, hold, or decline each item in the collage of items.

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 generating, for a computer display, a virtual hold tag in a shopping application on a computer that provides one or more items for sale to a consumer operating a client computing device, the shopping application being associated with a retailer of the one or more items;   associating, by a computer, at least one of the one or more items with the virtual hold tag in the shopping application;   generating, by the computer, a collage of items associated with the virtual hold tag, the collage of items being a single visual representation of each item associated with the virtual hold tag;   transmitting, by the computer, the collage of items to the consumer via the client computing device; and   providing, by the computer for the client computing device, an interface configured to allow the consumer to buy, hold, or decline each item in the collage of items.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method in accordance with  claim 1 , further comprising designating, by the computer, each item in the collage of items as being removed from inventory being held by the retailer of the one or more items. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method in accordance with  claim 2 , wherein the designating causes each item in the collage of items to be no longer for sale by the retailer during the designating. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method in accordance with  claim 1 , further comprising:
 establishing, by the computer, a relationship between the consumer operating the client computing device and a salesperson operating the computer, the salesperson being affiliated with the retailer.   
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method in accordance with  claim 4 , wherein the relationship includes exchanging personal information between the consumer and the salesperson via the client computing device and the computer, respectively. 
     
     
         6 . A system comprising:
 one or more programmable processors; and   at least one machine-readable medium tangibly encoding instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
 generating, for a computer display, a virtual hold tag in a shopping application that provides one or more items for sale to a consumer operating a client computing device, the shopping application being associated with a retailer of the one or more items; 
 associating at least one of the one or more items with the virtual hold tag in the shopping application; 
 generating a collage of items associated with the virtual hold tag, the collage of items being a single visual representation of each item associated with the virtual hold tag; 
 transmitting the collage of items to the consumer via the client computing device; and 
 providing, for the client computing device, an interface configured to allow the consumer to buy, hold, or decline each item in the collage of items. 
   
     
     
         7 . The system in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise designating each item in the collage of items as being removed from inventory being held by the retailer of the one or more items. 
     
     
         8 . The system in accordance with  claim 7 , wherein the designating causes each item in the collage of items to be no longer for sale by the retailer during the designating. 
     
     
         9 . The system in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise establishing a relationship between the consumer operating the client computing device and a salesperson operating the computer, the salesperson being affiliated with the retailer. 
     
     
         10 . The system in accordance with  claim 4 , wherein the relationship includes exchanging personal information between the consumer and the salesperson via the client computing device and the computer, respectively.